Violet Wood Sorrel - Ionoxalis Violacea (Linnaeus) Small - Plate 121a

Description

Violet Wood Sorrel - Ionoxalis Violacea (Linnaeus) Small - Plate 121a

Flowering stalks and leaves smooth, 3 to 8 inches tall, arising from a perennial, brownish, scaly bulb. Leaves few or several, slender-stemmed, one-half to 1 ¼ inches wide. Leaflets three, broader than long, notched at the apex. Flowers three to ten, or rarely more on each stalk, forming a loose, umbellate inflorescence at the summit, which is taller than the leaves. Each flower two-thirds to three-fourths of an inch long on a short, slender pedicel; sepals blunt, five in number, with tubercles at the apex; petals five, rose-purple, lighter toward the base, blunt, about three times as long as the sepals; stamens ten; capsule ovoid, about one-fifth of an inch in diameter.

In open, usually rather dry woodlands, shaded hillsides and thickets; sometimes in open, recently cleared land, Massachusetts to Florida and Texas, west to Minnesota. Flowering in May and June.